Face brick



1933- J. E. MINTER 1,923,636

FACE BRICK Filed Aug. 4, 1931 gwuentoc Patented Aug. 22, 1933 FACE BRiCK John Easter Minter, Columbus, Ga, assignor to Dixie Brick Company, Incorporated, Columbus,

Application August 4, 1931. Serial No. 555,067

2 Claims.

My invention which relates to the art of manufacturing face brick has particularly for its object to provide a brick whose face ornamentation possesses not only mechanical advantages but 5 aesthetic advantages over other kinds of face brick now known.

Further, it is one of the objects of the invention to provide a face brick, the face of which is of rough texture and is' so constructed as to give several different appearances to a wall in which it is used, depending on from what angle one views the wall.

Further, it is an object to provide a face brick which can be laid either side down without forming water pockets on the face of the brick or dust catching projections.

In the art of brick making two methods of manufacture are employed, one known as the side cut method and the other as the end cut method. Most face bricks are made by the side out method, see for example the patent to Grant No. 842,882, issued February 5, 1967. As will be seen from the Grant patent the roughness is produced by what is known as a roughening bar fastened across the bar of clay as it issues from the machine, and the brick are roughened in such a way that after they are laid on one side the points of thescales are directed downwardly, but if laid on the opposite side the points are directed upwardly, in which event they will catch dust and moisture will accumulate in the pockets of the scales. Furthermore, in a wall composed of brick such as are made by the Grant process, the texture of the brick appears the same to the eye, it not making much difierence, if any, from which angle the brick is viewed.

My invention has for its object to provide a brick whose face (and end) ornamentation is of the rough texture kind but whose sub-surfaces are so arranged that not only will the brick be reversible, i. c. it may be laid on either side without providing dust catch points or moisture collecting recesses-but it will be of variable appearance to the eye when viewed at different angles, as for instance if viewed straight at the face or" the brick, i. e. at right angles thereto, the texture has one appearance, if viewed from an angle of twenty or forty degrees 00 to the right it has another appearance, and if viewed at a similar angle to the left it has a third appearance, thereby giving to the wall a very distinctive tone not obtainable by face brick r now being manufactured so far as I am aware or have been able to learn.

Other objects will in part be obvious and in part be pointed out hereinafter.

In the drawing Figure l is a perspective View, largely diagrammatic showing the manner of making my brick.

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the completed brick.

Figure 3 is a horizontal section of the same, on line 3-3 of Figure 2.

In the drawing, in which like numerals of reference indicate like parts in all of the figures,

1 represents the die through which the clay is expressed, the opening in the die being of the cross section of the end '7 of the finished brick and not of the side of the finished brick as in the Grant patent. 3 represents the bar of clay expressed from the die, and 2 the conveyer onto which the bar of clay is delivered.

4 indicates the face roughening bar which may be of any approved construction, and 5 the end cutting bar or wire which also may be of any approved construction and operated in any of the usual ways.

As the clay issues from the die the roughening bar 4 will produce a series of scales along the face of the bar which also constitutes the face 8 of the brick when the brick length is severed from the remainder of the bar. In this way a rough tone brick is provided, the scales 9 on the face or" which having their points 10 all directed toward one end, '2, of the brick, and the end 7 of the brick may be formed with similar scales 8, the points of which 19 all project in the same direction toward, preferably, the back 11 of the brick.

Thus the pockets or recesses, due to the scaling, will be open laterally when the brick is laying on either side and will drain well and not serve to catch dust or pocket moisture as with the old style brick disclosed in Figures 4 and 5 of the Grant patent. Either side 6 of the brick may be laid thereon at will, thus making it unnecessary for the mason to be careful to lay a brick always on the same side and consequently the use of my brick in building construction reduces labor cost as well as provides more variation in the appearance of the wall and more pleasing effect to the eye.

End out brick, being pressed through a die with an opening about one-third the size of a side out, gives the brick a denser body, and owing to the way the formation takes place in the die, it makes the brick work better under the trowel and hammer, thus producing a more detil sirable body for face brick than the side out brick, and by reason of this denseness of the body the roughening bar produces a more pleasing' and a more uniform appearance on the face of the brick than occurs in the less denser body when the brick is pressed through the die sidewise, i. e. produced by the side out method.

From the foregoing description, it is thought the construction and advantages of my inventicn will be clear to those skilled in the art to which it relates.

What I claim is:

1. A textured brick having its face formed throughout with a series of scale-like portions all pointing in the direction of one end of the brick with recesses between the scales having 

